Masahiro Sakurai Reflects on Super Smash Bros. Dojo Campaigns and Personal Approach to Marketing

In the world of fighting games, few franchises are as celebrated as Super Smash Bros., Nintendo's flagship crossover brawler created by Masahiro Sakurai.

With each new entry—beginning with the original Super Smash Bros.

on the Nintendo 64—anticipation has grown around character reveals, stage announcements, and updates, especially in the weeks and months leading up to launch.

One of the most memorable aspects for many fans was the innovative 'Dojo' marketing campaign, which became a cornerstone of the franchise's community engagement and news cycle.

In a recent YouTube video, Masahiro Sakurai—director and visionary behind the Super Smash Bros.

series—revisited the creation and evolution of the Super Smash Bros.

Dojo marketing campaigns.

Looking back, Sakurai detailed how the original Dojo for the Nintendo 64 title was relatively obscure outside Japan, largely due to the early days of the internet and limited global reach.

That changed dramatically with future entries as the internet evolved into a central information hub for fans worldwide. Sakurai revealed that for Super Smash Bros.

Melee, he chose to personally update the Dojo website instead of delegating the task to his development team.

Sakurai explained that his intimate knowledge of the game made it more efficient for him to handle updates directly, noting that briefing others and overseeing team-created content would have been more time-consuming.

As a result, he poured his expertise and passion into crafting detailed updates that offered insights into new fighters, stages, and game mechanics ahead of release. This hands-on approach continued to shape fan engagement throughout the franchise’s subsequent releases, including Super Smash Bros.

Brawl for the Nintendo Wii and the widely acclaimed Super Smash Bros.

Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch.

The Dojo became a daily destination for fans, offering a steady stream of verified details and sneak peeks, and helping build unprecedented hype for each installment.

Sakurai’s personal commitment to the Dojo campaigns not only set a new standard for how video game marketing could operate in the digital era but also demonstrated the enduring value of direct communication between developers and fans.

Super Smash Bros.

Ultimate, released in December 2018 for the Nintendo Switch, has since become one of the platform's best-selling titles and a benchmark for crossover content in gaming. For those interested in the development and marketing side of games, Sakurai’s recent reflections provide a clear reminder of how personal investment from key creators can make a significant difference in a game’s reception and legacy.

The Dojo campaign remains a beloved chapter in both Nintendo and fighting game history, a testament to the power of information, community, and the direct voice of a developer who knows his audience.

Super Smash Bros Nintendo Masahiro Sakurai Smash Bros Dojo Sakurai